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Saturday, October 15, 2011

Bones - S/T

Growing up around metal as a child with my parents listening to Judas Priest, Motorhead, Sepultura and Mötley Crüe, it was a no-brainer that I was going to be into metal and all the forms of it. As I got older and somewhat wiser, in my opinion, I realized that more bands started to sound the same and nobody was really trademarking anything brand new. Thrash was a huge thing for me in my teens along with punk and the old-school death metal. As years passed I started to lose hope in the genres that I grew up on, drone, doom, sludge, stoner were weighing heavy on my heart so I had to let those genres in and quick. Up until recently, I let go of mostly everything thrash and punk, I wanted nothing to do with it and I was just completely bored with the majority of it. A couple weeks ago, Jon, bassist and vocalist for Bones, contacted me via Facebook and asked if I wanted to review the record they just released. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what I going to hear but I was up for the risk and challenge because I won’t ever turn down a free record.

Before I let this record spin for the first time, I literally shut everything off in my room except my laptop and speakers. I turned the light off and hit play on my winamp player then went lay on my soft, comfortable bed. Next thing I know, my eyes are open as wide as they can go and I’m shoving the blanket off of me in a very hectic state of confusion. I bring up the winamp player and realize that this is really Bones on my laptop. Suddenly an overwhelming rush of excitement filled my heart that I haven’t felt since I was nearly ten years old or so. Was I hearing what I thought? Were Bones really giving me everything I wanted in a death/thrash release? As the light shined down on me from the heavens, I realized that I have found the hope that I needed to love death/thrash again. Thrashing riffs and blistering drums that bulldozed the shit out of my whole body with speeds that I could only find from a jet in the sky. Prayers are answered! Well, mine are at least so don’t hate on me for being liked more than you by some higher power.

“Bones” provides nine tracks of full on battery for a solid thirty-five minutes with no pauses or let up so that you can catch your breath. From the second the first track, “March of the Dead”, begins, you realize that this ride will not be smooth nor clean. This energetic, overbearing grip that seems to choke you with insane structure and pure adrenaline, you would think running into on coming traffic would be similar to this record, right? Funny thing, you are actually a hundred percent correct in every way possible. Why didn’t someone tell me that Motorhead and Sepultura had a mastermind for a child? All the elements add up and they all make sense to me. Death/thrash is alive, breathing and very well in the eyes of this guy.

So, what happens when you lose all hope in a musical genre? A record gets thrown at your feet and you praise all things that are holy for receiving it and being able to blast it at high volumes until your neighbors call the police on you for a noise complaint. Life is great and I can start looking for some amazing death/thrash again. Bones – The one band that revived hope for me when I have nothing left in the tank.

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